Sunday, May 8, 2011

So How have I been?

School ran me ragged this last semester so I never had much chance to post.

The semester itself went great however. I know I got A's in two of my 3 classes and I am waiting for the stat's professor to post my grades for my final. But given I got an A on every homework assignment and both midterms, I'm not excessively worried.

The English class was kind of annoying in that many students weren't taking it seriously and the course was almost designed to take that into account as a starting assumption. I'm really not that scared of writing, so a class also designed with the assumption that I'm terrified of the process wasn't quite what I needed. But testing out of it would have required figuring out a lot of stuff very quickly when I was very busy, so I just ran with it and figured I'd pick up on everything I hadn't learned elsewhere in my learning experiences. Main papers I wrote were a paper on why my favorite songs were my favorites, a short presentation on land planning/use conflict regarding immigration, a review of cloth diapers (which I may end up posting here if I bother taking the time to get the pictures to show right), and a research paper on how a particular strategy used for immigration integration could apply towards the social integration of those with disabilities.

The Wildlands class was a lot of fun. The class was mostly designed to get me emotionally and intellectually engaged with the major, find out if I liked my department, and get to know the resources available in the department. Only a 1 credit class. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The statistics class was very boring at the start and quite a challenge at the end. For the first week or two I don't think we learned much of anything that I didn't know already or hadn't already seen before when I home schooled. By the end we were covering subjects that I had only vaguely even heard of before. I had to work hard at all my classes, but this is the main one where I felt I was learning something new all the time instead of just some of the time.

We switched to having me working full time and Bonnie Jean not working at all. Since this stopped us from passing Taelien back and forth like a hot potato when my wife needed to work and I needed to study, this actually increased both the time Bonnie Jean and I could spend together and the time I could study. But it was still a very hard semester. I only had two good study days a week where I could depend on sitting down for a long period of time and studying without interruption. It took both of those days typically to finish the statistics homework. English homework was fit in around other classes and a lot of it only after I got home from work and Bonnie Jean went to bed. So that means between midnight and 1 AM. The wildlands class mostly needed me to do things and attend activities instead of sit down and write papers and read things so I was able to mostly push that one in wherever it would fit.

The problem with having to complete homework between 12-1 AM on a regular basis is even when there isn't any home work that needs doing that very moment you are still in the habit of staying up that late even if just to relax and have a few moments to yourself. By the end of the semester I was so sleep deprived I had fallen sick with a cold threatening to turn into a sinus infection. I had to make an effort to get more sleep in so I would be awake for my stats final.

We've tried getting me back on my bike to reduce gas prices. Repairing my bike would cost 230$, however, due to rusty cabling, worn out tires, a stretched chain, and a worn out gear cog. So I bought a new one. Finally I own a road bike instead of a mountain bike that I only bought because it was the cheapest bike available for sale at the only bike store within walking distance. I still bought one of the cheaper ones I could find so it isn't a perfect bike. But unless I'm trying to bike up old main hill to get to class it seems to work perfectly. I was planning on walking up that hill anyways its so large, so I'm not complaining.